What finish to Lime Carving ?

[peterw3035]

I'm just completing a wood carving challenge using lime wood. I've split a single block of lime into 3 parts and they are quite different colours?? Does lime darken with age & exposure to light?
Also any recommendations for a finish, I'm thinking either oil or wax. Maybe using a sanding sealer first?
The carving has a textured/carved pattern on its surface.

 

[Lons]

Hi Peter

I've done quite a number of carvings, mostly in the round and my go to finish is sanding sealer, rubbed back followed by several coats of wax and a top coat of microcrystalline wax, if heavily textured use a soft brush to polish, works for me. One of my simple carvings was finished with Osmo raw but I was never happy as it looks almost artificial.
And yes lime will darken over time, how much depends if it's exposed to sunlight.

here are a very few.
The old timer is lime and only finished last year, the polar bear is probably 25 years old now.

 

[peterw3035]

Thanks @Lons it's a new learning experience for me and top tips are always welcome. The polar looks like stone, amazing.

 

[Lons]

Yes the wood as you realise is all different. I chose that because it was so light to start with. Come to think of it I seem to remember that I used acrylic sealer so it wouldn't darken. The base is sycamore and I tried bleaching that as I wanted it to look like an ice flow, the bleach didn't work but it looks ok.
The others in that pic are lime except the fungus which is a lump of elm from the firewood pile.

I have a number of others including some in walnut which is a favourite and if you ever get the chance to carve boxwood I'd thoroughly recommend you give it a go.
Here's a foal in walnut I carved for my granddaughter last year.